THE DEAN MACHINE

dumping landfill isn't something the council or isg would of wanted anyone to see especially if there is something in it that is supposed to be specially desposed of , dumping waste can be an expensive job unless you know a mate of a mate 😉

and you don't have to be super fit to ride a speedway bike and be successful infact the muscles used in a gym are not the ones used when you ride , you only need to be race and mentally fit and have top equipment and you will go a long way in this sport and you get that by racing and winning , if you are not a gym sort of person of which there are plenty in the sport being forced to do it by others will be having an adverse effect on your mental racing state , im not saying you shouldn't go to the gym everyday if that floats your boat but if it doesn't then don't force it on others, this week I was watching a documentary on john McGuiness and he was talking about this , he said he doesn't do fitness , he doesn't like it and even he admits he is slightly over weight and yet he is a world beater , why ? because he is mentally strong and has top equipment , you don't need to be a super althete to be a motorcycle champion

I just want swindon to have a new stadium just like reading and the countless others that have seen their track taken away , I don't trust councils and housing company's as their track record for speedway is dreadful

they put out a press release on the 26th of Jan saying work is going ahead on schedule and if you go up close then you will see work going on , well me and others have been on the car park and nothing is happening , so just what is the score ? Either they are blatantly telling lies or they haven't been to the track and believe what they are being told , it is around 20 weeks till the u21s on the new track and there is not even a new track marked out, just been reading about Mike Bowden at Swindon football , if you put Mike Bowden Swindon into Google and scroll down to the 6th there is a forum from the football club talking about Bowden replying about the stadium development from 2007

I did wonder if the debt is so big that has to be paid off why not just buy the greyhound stadium and do it up , you could have any shape track you like

yes , I think it will get used until the critical point of all the new houses (and there are many )get filled despite the assurances from the council etc about the new stadium , the fact is councils are full of corrupt people and if they need backing for houses they will mysterious get it and quite frankly they don't care a stuff about speedway , I hope I'm wrong but just take a look at the site now and the houses and proposed houses , who in their right mind is going to build a noisey dirt track island in the middle of it ?

as I've said yes I'm getting old and maybe it's a dated view ,this pro althlete crap might apeal to the riders but it doesn't do anything for the fans and that brings us to the same old point , who is the most important people in speedway ,riders or fans ?because the sport is currently being run by the riders for the riders and the fans are expected to pay for it and it makes a total joke of the fitness stuff when all you see from the young generation is diabeties in a can being drunk this is point I'm trying to make

but what about if that sponsor has a dislike for a particular rider and shows his displeasure in the pits and on social media on various occasions ?

im already spanner man for a pole this year speedway is all about heads , the head of the engine and the head that's on the shoulders are the things that win races with the one in the shoulders being the most important , if that bit isn't right everything else is pointless and that includes fitness

that's not what I'm saying , it's not about being fit , they all are it's about them banging on about being this highly tuned althlete and fans really couldn't care less

that's why I said I'm getting old on the end of the title , it is a young thing and maybe it is the future but it's not what made speedway popular and it turns me off the sport for one , I'm not saying it's the wrong way to go I'm just saying it's not what speedway was ,is and hopefully not what it's going to be I've had a few offers to help youngsters but it just doesn't work for me , it's the same as a mechanic , I'm proberly a better mechanic than I was a rider and I've had a few offers but I turn them down as it feels like I can't relate to the modern rider , feels a bit like they are doing a different sport and it's not the sport I love ,this season I'm mechanic for a pole and I have no problem because he is one of the last of the old school riders and that is in a round about type of way the point I'm trying to make

I'm not saying they shouldnt be fit in just saying all this fitness stuff is taking away the point of why the fans loved riders in the first place , I know a couple of riders who hate training and don't do it and they are no better or worse riders for it , personally if I had to train i would never of got on a bike in the first place , I wasn't a better rider than I was because I hit my talent level not because I wasn't any fitter ,you want to be a better rider go to peter John's and then go to a head shrink cause they are what you need to win

it hard to get the point across I am trying to make , they are trying to be this pro athlete and that's not what speedway riders were and fans loved them for it , do they now ? as I said im getting old and the sport isn't the animal it was and is starting distance me from it

I have touched on this subject before and this is just my opinion but this is how I am seeing modern day speedway .Current speedway seems to be pushing this fitness fuelled pro athlete sport as the way ,now im not saying being fit is a bad thing and you do need to be reasonably fit to race or at least race fit but the modern riders seem too be pushing the fit thing like its the be all and end all and that as far as I am concerned as a fan is not what speedway is , speedway is and always will be a common mans sport with real ordinary blokes that the fans feel like they can bond with, I overheard a conversation last week on the train about football and this guy was talking about how footballers were real hard men and they would take hard knocks and just get up and the fans loved them and I think this is the same as speedway .when I keep reading this fitness crap I just keep thinking this is not the sport I love, this is something else ,it feels like they are doing another sport ,a different sport that I raced and now watch , maybe this is the future of speedway and my view of it is dated but I don't like it and I don't want to become another one of the masses who have deserted the sport , I really do feel this is pushing apart the gap between rider and fans and the further it goes away the less the fans feel part of their sport , just think to yourself about your speedway hero from the past ,was he a real ordinary bloke with an amazing talent that you felt was just you , the more I think about this the more I feel like a fossil and that speedway has moved on and I haven't and right now we have the last few real riders left and the next generation of riders will just be lost to me. where are the Alan Grahame, Arthur price Jim tebby's of the sport? not sure I got across my view perfectly here but you get the point I am trying to make

it's about a valid excuse as the weather and Xmas

wolves signed a rider called torben hansen in the late 80s , he looked the part but what I remember he was miles off the pace ,he did 7 meetings and got an average of 0.40. in the 90s when I was riding at stoke we signed a dane called Fredrick Petersen I think his name was , he turned up at press and practice with no bikes and looked a bit bemused by it all , I think on a bit of a scout mission they had heard of a young dane called Fredrick Petersen that was worth a go but they got the wrong guy , he is on the press team photos but never turned a wheel for the potters

I can't believe this should even be allowed let alone considered ,people keep banging on about how much this league is for young riders etc so use them and ban r/r and guests in national league all together

i assume this messi and bale are footballers , if so there wages are paid for by sponsors and other incomes because there is not enough people who attend football match to pay the big wages they earn

and after all that you totally ignore the most important people , the fans , remember them ? , if the fans say it's too expensive for them then that's the bee all and end all , doesn't matter a jot what riders think they are not the important aspect in all this , we all know people who don't go to speedway because it's too expensive for them , not everyone in life has bags of disposable income , yes the sport has big issues and God knows it's got to promote itself and get more value but none of that matters if you don't make it tempting to people , I know how much this sport costs to ride and I know how much money riders make and I also know some folk who would love to attend every week but just can't afford the £18 so they don't go , the sport is too expensive for a lot of supporters and potential supporters and that's a fact , ignore it and we will disappear into the history books , the sport needs to finance itself differently , the bills need to be paid by sponsors so what comes through the turnstiles is a bonus , easier said than done but done it must be , the current model of costs go up so put that all on the fans is wrong and the fans has chose to desert us

a couple of points , it's winter what sort of weather were they expecting ?and I drive into the carpark last week and had a good look around and nothing is happening , they built a wall a few weeks ago but since then nothing , there is no workmen, no site office , nothing, perhaps they are hiding behind the houses and have a lookout so when someone turns up they all hide then start work when they have gone, when is the1st meeting on the new track supposed to be ?

For any of the hard work the bspa may have done to attract new fans to the sport the Coventry Liecester and belle vue saga has probably lost a 1000

The way Coventry speedway are treating their fans is a disgrace

it's not my favourite haunt i proberly only go in once every couple of months and she is definatly not my friend , can't stand the woman and she will do nothing for stoke speedway including sodding off which is what everybody wants , I don't attend stoke these days and if I do she makes me feel as welcome as a bacon sarni in a mosque

she is on reception as you go in , mainly on Saturdays , the casino is about 1000 yards away from old Sun street track

Unfortunately stoke has a person that has drove more people away with her attitude than anything else , that includes staff , riders and some of stokes longest following fans but if you want her to be civil to you go to genting casino in Hanley where she works on the desk as you go in , she has to be nice to you even though she is doing it through gritted teeth